Sunday, March 13, 2016

Education minister learns from Biton committee

Education Minister Naphtali Bennett learned something new when he expressed surprise at the extent of displacement and persecution Jews from Arab countries had suffered. He was taking part in the first session of the Biton committee convened last week. The Committee was set up to advise how the history and culture of Jews from Arab countries might be introduced into the Israeli school curriculum.

The photo shows Levana
Zamir in the foreground at the opening session, with (L-R): Prof. Maman, Zahava Shemesh
(coordinator) Michal Cohen, Director General of Ministry of Education, Minister Naftali Bennett and Erez
Biton.

During
the opening session of the Biton committee, titled :"One People: that is what it is all about" (Am Ehad: zeh kol ha sipur )
most of the topics centered around literature, poetry and heritage. However, Mrs
Levana Zamir, chairman of the Israeli umbrella organsiation representing Jews from Arab and Muslim countries, said: " it is important of course to renew books
on culture, poetry, Zionism and the Golden Age of Jews in Arab
countries, but
it is equally important to introduce in the new textbooks the "tragedy"
of Jews from Arab countries, the expulsions, persecutions, the forced
departure,
the escapes, the loss of properties and identity, etc."

Minister
Bennett
answered: "I did not know it was
such a mass expulsion and that there was such persecution in Egypt and other Arab
countries." The
Minister noted in his working paper that all this will be clearly included in
the new
programs.

The committee, chaired by the Algerian-born poet Erez Biton, is aiming to submit within three months to
the Minister of Education a program on how to implement the
history and culture of Jews from Arab countries in the educational system.

.

The Biton
Comittee is a public committee
of seven members, which will provide advice on various issues and brainstorm new ideas.

Erez
Biton -
head of the committee, will expand the Israeli TV series 'Amoud Ha'esh' (Pillar of Fire).' These 19 TV chapters on the rebirth and creation of the
State of Israel from 1896 to May 1948 did not include a single chapter
about the heritage, role and tragedy of the Jews from Arab
countries. Biton will introduce new chapters on the Jews of Arab lands, and will
initiate
new TV productions to expose their cultural, spiritual, and historicalrichness.

I am left speechless and a little disgusted that Bennett can be so ignorant. If an Israeli can say this, No wonder then that young Jews on American campuses who are even more ignorant flock to join anti Israel groups and participate in the most virulently racist events like so called apartheid week.What does it take for Israel to wake up? I was sad to see the lack of visibility of Jews of Arab lands in Israeli culture 40 years ago after the YK war...it was a little better in 2009 my last visit. still not good enough.

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Introduction

In just 50 years, almost a million Jews, whose communities stretch back up to 3,000 years, have been 'ethnically cleansed' from 10 Arab countries. These refugees outnumber the Palestinian refugees two to one, but their narrative has all but been ignored. Unlike Palestinian refugees, they fled not war, but systematic persecution. Seen in this light, Israel, where some 50 percent of the Jewish population descend from these refugees and are now full citizens, is the legitimate expression of the self-determination of an oppressed indigenous, Middle Eastern people.This website is dedicated to preserving the memory of the near-extinct Jewish communities, which can never return to what and where they once were - even if they wanted to. It will attempt to pass on the stories of the Jewish refugees and their current struggle for recognition and restitution. Awareness of the injustice done to these Jews can only advance the cause of peace and reconciliation.(Iran: once an ally of Israel, the Islamic Republic of Iran is now an implacable enemy and numbers of Iranian Jews have fallen drastically from 80,000 to 20,000 since the 1979 Islamic revolution. Their plight - and that of all other communities threatened by Islamism - does therefore fall within the scope of this blog.)